Red coat

Red coat, Redcoat or Redcoats may refer to:

Butlins Redcoats

Redcoat is the name given to frontline staff at Butlins holiday camps in the UK. A Redcoat has duties ranging from adult entertainer or children's entertainer to stewarding.

History

The first Redcoat was Norman Bradford. When Sir Billy Butlin opened his first Butlins in Skegness he realised that his guests were not engaging with activities in the way he had envisioned, most kept to themselves, and others look bored. He asked Norman (who was engaged as an engineer constructing the camp) to take on the duty of entertaining the guests which he did with a series of ice breakers and jokes. By the end of the night the camp was buzzing and the Butlins atmosphere was born.

The same night Butlin decided that for his camp to work he would require an army of people to carry out the same job as Norman, and the role of Redcoat was formed.

Uniform

To make his new army stand out, Butlin asked Norman to purchase a uniform. Norman later returned with a jacket in the camp colours of, blue, primrose yellow and white; however, Butlin found the look to be too authoritarian and decided they should wear red blazers with white lapels and the Redcoat uniform was born. The first uniforms were made by Billie Ditchfield who became one of the first two female Redcoats (the other was Kay Berry).

Redcoats (TV series)

Redcoats was a docusoap which ran for three series of half hour episodes, originally aired between 2001–2003, which followed the daily lives and activities of Redcoats working at Butlins Holiday Resorts in the UK.

Production

Originally airing on ITV between 2001 and 2003, it focused on many aspects of working life at both camps, as well as filming the selection process and giving an insight into how productions came together behind the scenes, as well as providing an insight into the lives of Redcoats after they had finished their employment there. Well known Children's television presenter Andy Crane provided the narration for the entire three series, produced by Pilgrim Productions.

Airing and popularity

Popularity of the show was high enough to warrant a purchase of the entire series by Sky Television where it was repeated on a number of channels including Sky Travel, Sky Three and Sky Real Lives until 2010 when the series ceased to be shown on any channel for the first time since its inception. The final episode of series three can still be seen on Sky Player.